NAME: ____________________________

I Search Packet!
Table of Contents Assignment & Due Dates Some successful questions from previous I-Search papers Tips & sources for online searches Source Day handout Some successful I-Search Openings Interview Techniques handout Search Section Excerpts that use interviews Evaluating internet sources The Lunchroom Rebellion MLA Citation Guide & Sample Works Cited Excerpts from successful I-Search search sections Formatting & punctuating quotations 2 3 4-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-24 25-26 27 28-29

E2FC Sanders/Weil I-Search Your next project will be an I-Search paper, in which youll investigate a topic of your own choosing to answer a question you have. Well take on the I-Search process together, discussing useful strategies and techniques. At this point, your most potent weapon is your own curiosity. Choose something that you have a real interest in; pick a subject youre hungry to know more a bout; seek knowledge that will benefit you in some way. As Ken Macrorie (who invented I-Search) puts it, The I-Search project asks you to scratch a genuine itch until youve quieted it. Your I-Search paper:

Must contain the following sections: An Introduction, a Search Section, and a Conclusion
You do not need to use these section titles, or even separate these parts of your paper physically, but the information in each section must be there.

Must contain at least one interview with a person who is in some way an expert in the field you are searching.
This interview may be conducted in person, over the phone, over Skype, or over email. You may not use IM or Facebook. Live, telephone, or Skype interviews are vastly preferable to email.

Must contain at least two additional sources, at least one of which must be published and printed by a credible publisher or
organization. Well discuss the definition and value of credible sources in class, and even work with the librarians to use databases that will help you access such materials. The ability to locate strong, relevant sources is one of the many skills the I-Search measures, so give them a great deal of thought and be diligent and creative in seeking them out.

Must contain proper documentation of sources.

You will use MLA style citation, which requires parenthetical in-text citations as well as a complete Works Cited list. Well go over this in class, and until then you should write down the title, author, publisher, and publication location and date of each source you use, the URL and access date of each website, and the full name of each person you interview, along with the date and method (in person, over the phone, etc.) of the interview. If you plagiarize anywhere in your I-Search paper, you will fail this course.

Must be typed (double-spaced, Times 11 or 12 font), proofread, and error-free.

I-Search Due Dates Spring 2013 Monday, 4/8 Friday, 4/12 Tuesday, 4/16 Question due Draft of Introduction due for peer editing Research Plan Due a physical copy of your print source information about the date, time, method, and subject of your interview information about additional sources Half draft of Search section due for peer editing (two to three pages discussing at least two sources) Full draft of Search section due for peer editing Drafts of Conclusion and Works Cited due for peer editing Full I-Search draft due for peer editing Final I-Search paper due in class and through turnitin.com

Tuesday, 4/23 Monday, 4/29 Wednesday, 5/1 Thursday, 5/2 Friday, 5/3

Since deadlines and peer editing are essential to the I-Search process, you should take all of the above due dates very seriously. Missing any of the dates will lower your grade one step (from an A+ to an A, an A to an A-, etc.)

Some Successful Questions from Previous I-Searches

How can I become a better guitar player? How can I deal with my high level of frustration and stress? What Chinese cultural values are the hardest to preserve in America? What Chinese medicines can benefit a martial artist like me? What is perfect pitch, how can it benefit me as a musician, and can I learn to acquire it? How would my life be different if I went to a regional high school instead of Stuyvesant? Does cramming work? How can I overcome shyness and learn to make better conversation? What is on the other side of a black hole? What happens to the things that go in? Can music be considered a language? What religion should I be, and why should I choose it? Why am I always so tired, and what can I do about it? How do I get into car designing? How can I become a better sprinter? Should I get laser eye surgery? What is the future of banjo playing? What do you do if your car breaks down? Should I enlist in the armed services? If so, which branch? Should I go skydiving? Should I be a part-time bartender in the future? How did the high school shootings at Columbine affect life in America? What should I see and do on my cross-country road trip? What are the benefits of learning multiple languages, and whats the best way for me to do it? How does quantum computing work, and what can it accomplish? Why do people have nightmares? Does spontaneous human combustion actually occur? What makes French food so special, and how can I learn how to create basic French dishes? How can I find a summer job? Should I learn to play the drums and become a professional drummer? Should I consider a career in politics? How do politicians start a campaign? What would it take for me to survive alone in the North American wilderness? Should I take yoga or pilates? What causes kleptomania? Do I want to become a narcotics officer? How do I get started becoming a DJ? Should I join the Stuyvesant wrestling team? What are the basics of being a good breakdancer? How can I improve? What do marine biologists do? Can I make a living publishing a webcomic? Where do choreographers get the inspiration and ideas to create original dances? Should I stop getting sunburned? Will it really lead to skin cancer? How did the circumstances that faced Jews outside of concentration camps in WWII-era Europe affect my family? What are the causes of acne breakouts, and how can I prevent them? How does the human mind make decisions? And how can I learn to make better ones? When is the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone Park likely to erupt, and how will it affect me? Why do so many teenagers smoke? How does acupuncture work? How can I improve my mental game to become a better tennis player? What are the current working conditions in sweatshops? Have they improved?

DATABASES PROVIDED BY STUYVESANT

These databases can be accessed via stuy.enschool.org Academics Library Databases This Master Password list is continually updated and is as an attached PDF document at the bottom of the Databases webpage,. Open with the Master Password stuylib . ABC-CLIO Includes World Geography, World History Modern, World History Ancient & Medieval, World at War, Current Issues, World Religion, and Daily Life. http://databases.abc-clio.com Username: stuyhs Password: stuyhs JSTOR a database of academic journals and periodicals provided by Stuy. Set up a personal account to use it via this token link: http://www.jstor.org/token/rnJ8evEqUkm8VJmRsGki/stuy.edu Enter Stuyvesant High School when asked to enter an institution name. GALE General Science; Popular Magazines; Psychology; World History; Religion & Philosophy; Pop Culture; Business, Economics and Theory; Communications and Mass Media; Criminal Justice; Environmental Studies and Policy; Fine Arts and Music; Culinary Arts; Health and Wellness Resource Center; Alternative Health Module; Military and Intelligence; Gardening and Horticulture; Diversity Studies; GLBT Issues; Twayne Author Series; Vocations and Careers; War and Terrorism; Hospitality and Tourism; etc. http://infotrac.galegroup.com Username: nysl_me_71_svhs (underscores, not spaces) Password: empirelink GROLIER ONLINE includes online versions of Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, and The New Book of Knowledge. http://go.grolier.com Username: nystate361 Password: novelhome PROQUEST Online this includes popular magazines, professional and trade publications, as well as current and historical New York Times articles. http://www.proquestk12.com Username and password: stuylib [then click on My Products Page] SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN current issue and limited archive access. Our subscription must be accessed via this link: http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/nams/svc/tlogin/C7B9F821638C9C5533929EF57991976E When prompted for a Magic Word, enter stuylib. THE ECONOMIST current magazine issue as well as archives. http://www.economist.com Username: stuylibrary@gmail.com

Password: economist

THE NEW YORKER current magazine issue as well as archives. https://secure.newyorker.com/user/login Username: stuylibrary@gmail.com

Password: newyorker

NEW YORK TIMES REPLICA EDITION Print-edition layout in digital format with a 30-day archive. http://eedition.nytimes.com Username and Password: 100320977 We have in-school-only access to SCIENCE DIRECT (with limited access) and SCIENCE NEWS. [Click on the links on the library webpage for these sites within the building for direct access.] Also, try the New York Public Library for other databases at www.nypl.org. Some databases you might make use of there are Literature Resource Center for literary criticism articles, and Opposing Viewpoints for persuasive essays on various issues with related articles and statistics. For word etymology try the Oxford English Dictionary [OED Online]. For access to Wired magazine on your device, go to www.wired.com/go/digitalaccess. The subscription account number is 0895302396 . Enter stuylibrary@gmail.com and the password stuylibrary .

Web Search Basic Skills: Six Basic Web Search Skills You Need to Have By Wendy Boswell, About.com
(http://websearch.about.com/od/internetresearch/a/genericsearch.htm)

There are a few tried and true web search methods that will work in virtually any search engine and directory. Here are six basic web search skills you need to have in order to have truly successful web searches.

Web Search Basics

Keywords. The more narrowed down you can get your Web searches from the beginning, the more successful your Web search usually will be. For example, if you were searching for "coffee", you'd get way more results back than you could use; however, if you narrowed that down to "roasted Arabica coffee", you'd be more successful. Phrases. If you're looking for an exact phrase, put it in quotes. Otherwise, you'll come back with a huge jumble of results. Here's an example: "long haired cats." Your search will come back with these three words in proximity to each other and in the order you intended them to be, rather than scattered willynilly on the site. Use Basic Math.Broaden or narrow your search efforts by using add and subtract. For example, you are searching for Tom Ford, but you get lots of results for Ford Motors. Easy - just combine a couple of Web search basics here to get your results: "tom ford" -motors. Now your results will come back without all those pesky car results. Wildcards. You can use "wildcard" characters to throw a broader search net in most search engines and directories. These wildcard characters include *, #, and ?, with the asterisk being the most common. Use wildcards when you want to broaden your search. For example, if you are looking for sites that discuss trucking, don't search for truck, search for truck*. This will return pages that contain the word "truck" as well as pages that contain "trucks", "trucking", "truck enthusiasts", "trucking industry", and so on. You can find out more about wildcard searches in my article titled How to Do a Wildcard Search. Find the Word. Sometimes you might get back a page that you have no idea why it was returned; especially if it's a long, wordy document. Just hit Ctrl (at the bottom left of your keyboard), then F (for find), and then type in the text you are looking for. Voila! Your word or phrase is now highlighted. Guess.If you have basic knowledge of how URL's are constructed, you can "guess" the location of a particular site. For example, commercial sites will be "sitename.com", college and university sites will be "sitename.edu", non-profit organizations will be "sitename.org", and so on. Don't Give Up. If you're just starting out learning how to search the Web, it's easy to be overwhelmed with just the sheer amount of information that is available to you, especially if you're searching for something very specific. Don't give up! Keep trying, and don't be afraid to try new search engines, new Web search phrase combinations, new Web search techniques, etc.

These tips, while pretty generic, will greatly increase your chances of having a successful Web search experience. Don't be afraid to try new methods; experiment a little with your Web search strings and see what happens. 5

Developing A Search Plan: How To Search More of the Web By Wendy Boswell, About.com (http://websearch.about.com/od/internetresearch/a/searchplan.htm) Even if you're just doing a casual Web search, it can be a good idea to identify exactly what it is you are looking for from the beginning, and if possible, narrow down your target to make it easier to find. Developing a search plan is a good idea, especially when you are looking for targeted results-and who knows, sometimes you'll find you know more than you thought about a subject, which will make your search more efficient-especially useful when researching a complicated topic. Here are some basic questions to ask yourself:

Narrow Down Your Search Target

1. What do I understand about this already? o What are the key concepts? o Do I understand what it is I'm looking for? o How much information will I need? o How soon do I need to find this information? 2. What is my search topic? o What is my knowledge of this topic? o Do I need to consult dictionaries or encyclopedias? o What is my existing knowledge, and how can I expand on it? 3. What are the keywords or phrases? o Write out what you're looking for. o Brainstorm the most important key words. o Identify these words and use them in your search efforts. Once you have organized lists of keywords, you can search quickly for the most relevant resources. Formulate your search question. For example: When was the Great Wall of China built? Develop synonyms to your keyword list, or other words that might bring in relevant results in your search efforts. For example, "China history" might bring in broader results than just "Great Wall".
Helpful Google shortcuts (from http://websearch.about.com/library/cheatsheet/blgooglecheatsheet.htm) Google Shortcut Finds Pages That Have... the words nokia and phone nokia phone sailing OR boating either the word sailing or the word boating "love me tender" the exact phrase love me tender printer -cartridge the word printer but NOT the word cartridge ~auto looks up the word auto and synonyms define:serendipity definitions of the word serendipity how now * cow the words how now cow separated by one or more words site:(search only one website) site:websearch.about.com "invisible web" link:(find linked pages) link:www.lifehacker.com daterange:(search within specific date range) bosnia daterange:200508-200510 safesearch: (exclude adult content) safesearch:breast cancer

I-SEARCH PAPERS: SOURCE DAY SHEET

MY I-SEARCH QUESTION:

MY SOURCE IDEAS:

GROUP SOURCE SUGGESTIONS:

NAME:

QUESTION:

NAME:

QUESTION:

Kyle Oleksiuk, from Welcome to the Jungle (How would I survive in the wilderness?) As a kid growing up in a city with a little over eight million people in it, I was constantly bombarded with the fact that no matter what I did, I would always just be another nameless face wandering around New York. As a result, I did whatever I could to try and differentiate myself from my peers; I started writing with my left hand, learned to play the harmonica, acquired a bizarre collection of hats, and eventually started cultivating bonsai trees. None of these, however, compared to my obsession with Canada. I had always known that my dad was from Canada, and was actually from one of the least Canadian places in the country: Windsor. Across the river from Detroit, on the weekends Windsors population rises to a higher number of Americans than Canadians as teenagers arrive by the busload to enjoy Canadas lower drinking age. Despite this, and the small setback that I myself had b een born in America, I took every chance I got to parade my Canadian heritage around like an Olympic gold medal. Eventually it got to the point where I would just flat-out lie to people and tell them I was Canadian. Everything Canadian became cool to me, so when my dad proposed that I attend his old summer camp, I was all for it, and that summer I was shipped off to northern Ontario for the last two weeks of July. The longer I spent at camp, the more my weird selfconscious obsession with Canada fell away, and I gradually replaced it with a fascination for nature. I went back to that camp for three years, until what had escalated into month-long trips to camp grew cumbersome on the meager summer plans of a sixth-grader. So, after the proper amount of limbering up for the challenge ahead, I told my mom. Why? I thought you loved camp! I fumbled for the right words. Mom, its just that nobody else goes to camp, and I really wanna hang out with my friends. The awkward silence grew as I wondered how she would respond. Ill talk to your father about it. That was it. She had checkmated me. There was no way I could get out of it now. Eventually, I managed to complain enough to get them to agree to my proposal: that I wouldnt go that summer, but that I woul d definitely go next year. The next year, I used the same argument; surprisingly, it worked again. And the year after that, and the year after that, until now, at almost fifteen years old, Ive reached the age limit for my childhood summer camp. Lately, the realization has started to sink in that I will never attend there again, and Ive been missing the freedom and open space that I had had out there that I could never find in the city. Living constantly surrounded by people was nothing like sleeping under the stars in the middle of the northern Canadian woods with only a couple of others for miles. All I had ever really learned in camp was how to start a fire with a pair of sticks and how to tie a few knots, but living off the land had never been too much trouble. I might not be able to visit my old stomping grounds again, but could I try to relive it by going into the North American wilderness? How could I prepare myself if I wanted to try? Doron Shapiro, from What is the Future of Banjo Playing? Part of the freshman orientation day at Stuyvesant High School involved auditions for the school band. While waiting on line in front of the band directors office, a friend of mine from elementary school looked at my instruments case and asked me, Is that a banjo? It was, I told him. Wow. There was a pause. Could I see it? Ive never seen one before. I took it out and played a few notes. This whole scene wasnt too strange fo r me, even if it was for my friend. By then, I was used to my friends being unfamiliar with my in strument. After all, there arent too many teenagers out there in New York City who play banjo. So what am I doing here playing banjo? Way back when I was ten, I found one in my grandparents closet. My mom wasnt quite sure where it came from, but she remembered it being there when she was a kid. She thought it had something to do with paying off a debt to my great-grandfather during the great depression, but my mom wasnt sure. Well, for fun, I pretended to play it. It was sort of strange looking: four strings, a short neck, and this funny little drawing on the flat part on top, right next to these tuning pegs and the word Stella. On the back were a few circles with a little keyhole in the center, whose purpose I could never guess. My gr andmother, as usual, thought I sounded like I had extraordinary talent and said I should get lessons. My mom, who wanted me to play some sort of instrument at the time, asked me if I wanted banjo lessons and I, not thinking that there was any reason not to, agreed. Then came the hard part. Who teaches banjo? After a few years and false starts, we found Cynthia Sayer, a jazz banjoist. So, for the past few years, I have been learning early jazz on a tenor banjo. At this point, I have been playing the instrument for enough years to have learned a little about its very early history in the United States (it was brought here by African slaves and then gained popularity with minstrel shows). What Im really curiou s about, however, isnt history. At this point, it s eems like outside of the banjo-playing world and especially among my friends, I am lucky to meet someone who has even seen a banjo. There is no major pop music that I know of with a banjo part, and I had a little difficulty trying to explain my musical experience to the director of the band at my high school (they dont have a banjo section). While we both agreed that the banjo was something really cool, there just arent banjo parts written for the songs the band plays. So when my banjo teacher told me that the banjo is having a revival, I start getting curious. Is this true? How are banjo players trying to popularize what could be called a dying instrument? Maybe more importantly, who is playing it now? I still have not met another banjo player anywhere near my age. Am I going to be the last one? Ok, maybe not. But seriously, what is the future of banjo playing?

Maya Rose Goldman, from Homosexuality: A Struggle for Equality I. do you even know what that means? Did you know that it is gay for a boy to wear a sweater with the hood up? Apparently, it is also gay for a woman to have a high-pitched voice. Yes, somehow this everyday action and trait determine ones sexual orientation -- at least, according to my classmates who responded to these behaviors with, Oh, my god, thats so gay! Every day, I am surrounded by insults of youre so gay, and you fag, and [place any name here, because Im sure many of us have been told this or have heard this at some point in our Stuy vesant lives], stop being so gay! How is it that the term gay went from meaning happy, to being both a sexual orientation and an offensiv e synonym for stupid, or weird? I decided to write my I-Search paper on what it means to be gay in the United States not only to further educate myself, but to further educate my classmates, as well. I am frustrated by the misinformed insults I hear daily, and I want my peers to know the history behind the words they use to describe others. A good friend of mine once made reference to a person he disliked, calling the man a fag. I immediately asked him to stop using that word, it was offensive. In response, he just looked at me blankly. He did not know that fag is commonly used to offend gays. How many people who use gay and fag as insults dont know the meaning of what they are truly saying? I am also writing this paper because, although I am a female Jew, I was born in a time and place where that group is not really oppressed. Furthermore, I am light-skinned, straight (right? Or will it change?), and come from a family with a stable economic background. My mom, on the other hand, possesses all of these qualities except one: she is lesbian. Growing up in the seventies amongst hostility and hatred could not have been easy, o r even remotely enjoyable; I want to know more about my moms past, and what it was like growing up lesbian thirty years ago. As of now, this paper is an exploration of the difficulties and obstacles faced in the past, versus the ones that currently exist in todays United States, and what the future seems to hold for the acceptance and rights of gay people. I know some things about current gay rights, but my knowledge is hazy -- like a dilettante, I know a little about several issues. For example, I know there is a scale from zero to six (plus x, for asexual) called the Kinsey scale that measures 0 -exclusively heterosexual, to 6-exclusively homosexual, and everything in between. I know that one cannot be a zero or a six, but must actually lie somewhere between the two. I know that as of a few hours ago (Thursday, May 15th, 2008), it is legal in four percent of this country for gay people to get married (in terms of two states out of fifty), while several other states have civil unions (about which I know very little). There are many other random facts I know, mostly from the news and first-hand family member sources, but I have many questions on the past and present condition of gay rights, as well as the history behind it all. How did the words queer and faggot come to be derogatory terms for gay people? Where and how did homophobia and the oppression of gay people originate? Was it always like this? What factors/characteristics of society today encourage/lead to this oppression? Are gays considered a minority? Obviously, my curiosity is endless, and conducting this search will most likely just add to my repertoire of questions. Kelly Chen, from Decisions, Decisions (How does the human mind make decisions?) What do you think of when you hear the word decisions? Making a choice, weighing pros and cons, and the phrase life -changing are some things that often come to mind. We make decisions every day. From deciding miniscule things such as what to eat for breakfast, to things that will affect your life significantly such as deciding what college to go to or where to live, we spend our time debating what to do, but not enough time thinking about how these choices are made. People often say that the decisions you make define you and what Im interested in finding out is how we make these decisions. Its something that is such a common process in our lives that theres nev er much thought being put into it. Well, I believe that it is time to start thinking about how we think and make decisions. As of now, all I know about decision making is that although it is a well believed idea that logical thinking is the best way to make good decisions, emotions often get in the way and control most of the decisions we make. Also, people tend to overcomplicate or oversimplify a situation, causing them to make the wrong decision. Other than that, I honestly dont know anything about it. My interest for the human mind started sometime in middle school, when believe it or not, I was watching a Japanese drama. It was called Liar Game and was about an overly gullible girl who is thrown into a game where you must deceive others, or be forced into millions of dollars of debt. Knowing her flaw, Nao Kanzaki begs the swindler, Akiyama to help her win this game. From the very start of this drama, Akiyama was the character who fascinated me the most. It wasnt just because of his dashing good looks, but becau se of the way he was able to figure out exactly how people were thinking, and what decisions they were going to make. The idea of being able to read a persons mind and predict his/her next move was so captivating and it really made me wonder about whether or not human s were that predictable and how choices are made. Now, although that drama did spark my interest in psychology in general, I ended up dropping that thought for quite a while. Recently however, a very frightening thing happened to someone I care about dearly, my father. When he came home from work one day, he told my mother and me about his drive home. There had been three cars that crashed into each other, blocking exit 11N. As he was driving, he had to avoid the cars, but there was also a truck coming up behind him on the right and the road was too slippery to stop. So, in those few seconds my dad decided to swerve to the left, avoiding the truck, but putting himself in potential danger of getting hit by other cars probably going over 60 miles per hour on the highway. Thankfully, he safely returned home to tell the tale. However, this event really got me thinking. That one decision hed made in no more than a few seconds saved his life. How was he able to make the right choice under so much stress and in so little time? If decisions are such a common and essential part of our daily lives, then why is there so li ttle conscious thought put into the process? It seems like people in general dont know much about how they make decisions and whenever wrong ones are made, the emotions that went with the decision are blamed. Through this I-search, I hope to distinguish between superstition and fact. The questions I have are: How does the human mind work in decision making? How can I learn to make better decisions?

10

I-Search: Interview Techniques

Some tips adapted from Ken Macrorie, The I-Search Paper, and Shut Up and Listen: The Keys to Good Interviewing, by Dr. Ink (Poynteronline), and with a debt of gratitude to Ms. Thoms.

1. Approach your subject (the person you want to interview) politely. Briefly explain that you are writing a research paper for your English class, and ask if he or she would be willing to be interviewed. Explain what area of questioning you want to focus on: Id like to ask you about your experiences as a published poet. Id like to interview you about how exactly sunburns cause skin cancer. Schedule a mutually agreeable time for your interview. You may conduct your interview in person, over the phone, by Skype, or via email. If you are writing email, remember to write it as a formal letterdont use IM slang. In person interviews are best. Skype and phone interviews are second best. Both are vastly better than email.

2. Be prepared. Before you meet or speak with your expert, do some initial research on your topic, and write down your questions. Dont ask an expert for simple answers that you can get with minimal research. Its waste of your time and an insult to your expert! Be prepared to explain the assignment again, and then be ready to ask your questions. Write down both open-ended, introductory question, and more specific, detailed questions for later in the interview.

3. Record the interview. Theres no one right way to do this. Some interviewers work with a pad of paper and a pen; others bring a small recording device. (If you do this, be sure to ask your subject first if he or she minds being recorded.) Some important points about recording an interview: a. You do NOT have to write down every word your subject says. Dont panic if you feel you cant keep up. Think about whats being said, not about how to get it down, and youll find you dont need every word. b. If you dont hear or dont understand something, you can say, Will you repeat that? or Im not sure I understood what you just said. c. Listen for the things that pertain to the focus of your profile. Write them down.

11

4. Ask open-ended questions. Skillful interviewers make their subjects feel like opening up. They dont ask, Did you start working as a ____________ when you were very young? Thats likely to produce a simple Yes or No, and a pause anticipating the next question. Try starting out with a How or Why question. Get your subject talking! Some ideas: a. How did you get started in this area? b. Why did you get interested in this topic? d. If you were allowed to tell a beginner only one thing about this topic, what would it be? 5. Shut up and listen. 6. Work from a list of questions, but veer off. If your expert says or does something interesting, ask a follow-up question; dont just go on to the next item on your list. Be willing to be surprised. 7. Ask the most important questions more than once and in different forms. 8. If possible, interview your expert on his or her turf. Why? For one thing, he or she may be more comfortable there, and therefore more willing to open up. For another, you may learn things you otherwise wouldnt simply by being there! If you can, hang around to watch and record your experts interactions with others. Notice physical details about your expert and his or her surroundings. Be observant! 9. Write down things you see, not just answers to questions. See above.

After the Interview 1. As soon as possible, sit down with your notes and fill them in. Add details you remember from the interview and thoughts that strike you as you gather information for your search. Think about how youll incorporate this into your I-Search. 2. Underline the strongest pieces of dialogue pieces which contain important information, answer a question particularly well, or show something you want to convey about your expert (for example, enthusiasm, depth of knowledge, or sense of humor). Use these pieces in your I-Search.

12

Search Section Excerpts That Make Good Use of Interviews Jane Argodale, from Immigrant Past, Hipster Future? (What made my neighborhood what it is, and how is it changing?) The complexity of the issue is clear in the wide range of opinions within the same community, but I needed to know how serious this gentrification issue really is in Astoria, and I expect that The Daily News is bound to skim over something. I needed the opinion of someone who had the knowledge of a journalist or historian, as well as someone who had been around long enough to have witnessed the changes in Astoria, like my old Greek landlord, but with the ability to speak comprehensible English. I found just the right man: Jack Eichenbaum, the official Queens Borough Historian, and a lifelong Queens resident. Hes been witness to demographic changes all over Queens, both in 33 years of living in the same Flushing apartment, and spending those same years leading walking tours throughout Queens. Jack Eichenbaums answer was certainly definitive. He told me in his loud, unwavering voice that there was no question that the gentrification happening in Astoria was on the same scale as the gentrification in neigh borhoods of Brooklyn and Manhattan (think Park Slope and the East Village), noting all the new yuppie bars and restaurants along 30th avenue, along with the old ethnic restaurants, with a difference being the difficulty of actually tearing down Astorias buildings and replacing them with condominiums as has happened further south in Long Island City. Many would say yes, this change is good for Astoria, and many others are gonna say its horrible. Neighborhood change, ethnic change, gentrificationits a daunting issue, Eichenbaum said, speeding up as I rushed to scribble down his phrasing. He told me about his own experiences in Flushing, a neighborhood known for its Chinese and Korean population. When he had first moved into his building 33 years ago, the Koreans who lived there were young professionals who spoke English, but now older Koreans are moving in, who speak little or no English. I cant communicate with them, and I could be missing out on something because of that. Communication is important, both in terms of language and age. In Astoria, youve got these older immigrants, Greeks, and these yuppies moving in. These Greeks are wondering, What are these people doing in my neighborhood with their piercings and tattoos? Perhaps this means that the hipsters of Astoria are missing out too. From God: Whats The Point? by David Matsibekker I decided to start my research by interviewing people who were students, like me, but were religious. I hoped that the lack of an age difference could let me understand their point of view. The perfect place to start was with Amber Lin, a fellow classmate and a member of the Stuyvesant Seekers Christian Fellowship. She is very animated, and it certainly helps her get her point across. Lin has a pleasant, light personality that can easily put you at ease, and a cheery smile to match it. I instantly relaxed as I sat down for my first interview (not only for the paper, because of time constraints I had three interviews with Amber Lin) in a nearly empty McDonalds and asked, What do god and religion mean to you? Leaning forwards with a pensive look on her face she stated, Religion is just the truth you know, its such a hopeful thing; I dont see how some pe ople just dont believe it. When I asked what hope it gave, Amber said, Life is short and god offers hope in the face of death. From there the interview took a sudden turn. The atmosphere grew serious and profound as we delved into the serious subject of religion. Religion gives you a point in life, was probab ly the start of the answer to my question. According to Amber, religion gives you a moral code with Responsibilities to care of ourselves, our families, and even the planet, even if not all religious people follow it. When asked why not all people believ e in god, Amber simply said, People dont like the unknown, and god is unknown, so they dont like god (Lin). Her ideas were not the only ones about god, however. Some believe that though god exists, it is not necessary to worship him. God, I believe in, I just dont trust humans enough to have a religion and Most want to believe, but it doesnt really matter was what Fanny He said during her interview. She is as composed as Amber is animated and she quickly gets to the point. I heard of this blas view of religion before, but I didnt understand the point of believing in god if he is not part of your life. The explanation: He is the one constant in life, even when everything changes (He). That concluded our five minute interview during which I got all the information I needed. I needed more opinions so I decided to take advantage of Ms. Moores absence to get more interviews in English class. That is how I ended up standing in front of Tangina Alams desk, feeling uncomfortable and conducting an in terview while curious onlookers waited for an angry clash of beliefs (they did not get what they wanted). To Tangina Religion is a sanctuary, and It gives you a sense of peace. I asked her if people should be religious and she said, Its not really necessary, it depends on the person (Alam). It seems that Tangina viewed religion as a positive and correct thing but she did not believe people had to have one. Like the other interviewees Tangina believed in God and her religion but was not missionary, letting other people hold their own beliefs.

13

From How Do I Take A Good Walk? by Alex Gurvets After reading Thoreaus essay, I felt like I had interviewed him personally. I felt sure I had spoken to him with him. Unfortunately, he died in 1862, leaving me in need of a real interview. Fortunately, the answer to my question is personal, so any interviewee is his own expert. I think you will agree, though, that Ittai Hershman has impressive qualifications. First and foremost, he only lives two and a half blocks away from me. Second, he walks four miles every day and takes a longer walk, about six and a half miles, once every two weeks. I only had two and a half blocks to walk, so of course it was raining as I made my way over to his apartment. Ittai accepted me graciously into his home, wet shoes and all. We went over to a large rectangular glass table and I sat down and took out my tape recorder. He took his seat and settled in like a pillar. We were under low-hanging bright lights that left the room around us dim. From the start our interview was an interrogation. I began by telling him my I-Search question. He laughed loudly, a thunderous sound that struck me like a blow. It passed through my thoughts that I might not be the interrogator. I was about to find out that Ittai, like Thoreau, has definite ideas about what makes a walk good, most of which are contrary to Thoreaus. Ittai spoke slow-ly, deliberately, and intelligently. Long pauses dotted his speech while his mind worked midsentence. He defined a good walk by five factors. First, on a good walk nothing makes him angry. An understandable sentiment, I thought. Second, on a good walk he has no disruptions. Another understandable sentiment, I thought. This point is the main complaint many pedestrians have about walking in New York; constant traffic signals mean constant interruptions to the flow of walking. Geoff Nicholson says in his book The Art of Walking that walking in New York involves a lot of waiting to walk (Nicholson 146). Ittai, who has lived on the Upper West Side his whole life except for some time spent in London, walks from his home on eighty-sixth street down Broadway to South Ferry and encounters few stop lights; on Broadway the traffic signals are synced. Whether or not I walk on Broadway for my perfect walk, this was an excellent discovery for someone who will undoubtedly need to get somewhere quickly in Manhattan. Other potential disruptions include companions. Unlike Thoreau, Ittai clearly stated his view on accompanied walks: I like walking alone. It gives me time to think, it calms me down. It gives me a chance to enjoy the city in a way that you cant do while talking to someone. Having a walk and talking to someone is a very nice thing to do, but again for me thats not walking. Thats a different activity. Thats being with someone (Hershman). Third, Ittai said, For me a walk is exercise. I like to walk fast. On a good walk, he breaks a serious sweat (Hershman). A totally inexplicable sentiment, I thought. Fourth, he likes when nice things happen on his walks. Also an understandable sentiment, I thought. Nice things include noticing new things about the buildings and streets that he has lived on his whole life: the way sunlight hits a window, or an architectural detail. Fifth, he thrives on the quick interactions a pedestrian in New York has with all other pedestrians in New York. I find it just great walking around and seeing all the people, Ittai said. I like people watching. Its part of what is nice about urban walking (Hershman). A nice sentiment, I thought. So thats a good walk, Hershman-style: pleasant, uninterrupted, well-paced, interesting. Ittais walks have other distinct differences from Thoreaus. Thoreau walks in nature, but Ittai said, While I tend to walk fast, I like to look around. I like having stuff happening around meI like strolling in the park, but I dont like walking in the park The park doesnt do it for me, but city streets do. Thoreaus Romantic ideal is to meander and lose himself on his walks, whereas For me having a walk means getting somewhere, Ittai said. The wa y I walk is I pick a destination. So I may alter the route and how I get to that destination, but I have a destination in mind. For me its always a point A to point B exercise. Thoreau was peripatetic, in the poetic sense, but Ittai has a different take . In terms of having inspiration from walks, I think a lot of people have their own magic formula or sweet spot for when they have their best thoughts. I have good thoughts when Im walking, but my best thoughts come when Im in the shower. Is there anything else you would like to say? I asked Ittai, to conclude our interrogatiinterview. Yes, he said, and leaned forward in his chair; at that point I felt terribly small, like an Israelite at the foot of Sinai. I have a question. Why did you choose this topic? (Hershman). I felt slapped in the facenot because I was insulted or embarrassed, but rather because I felt laid bare. I had seized upon this I-Search question enthusiastically, to be sure, but had never stopped to ask myself why? My interv iewee had called me out. He forced me on the spot to justify myself to him (and, I realized, to myself). Why? I looked away and was silent for a few moments. Then I answered, speaking slowly and uncertainly at first but gaining confidence and excitement as I understood that I had hit upon the truth of the matter. I said that I was searching for what could focus my thoughts. What could I turn to when I need to muddle through serious and complicated problems? When Im depressed? When I need inspiration? I was looking for my magic formula or sweet spot. For many people, like Thoreau, walking is the answer. So thats why I chose this topic. But since the moment Ittai asked me why? Ive been thinking about it and Ive realized that I was asking the wrong question all along. I really mean, Will walking work for me?

14

Questions to Ask When Evaluating an Internet Source

Accuracy Almost anyone can publish a web site, and no standards for checking accuracy have been fully developed. Here are some questions to ask when evaluating for the accuracy of a site. Does the author cite the sources of information he or she used to develop the site? Is it possible to verify the legitimacy of these sources? Does the background of the author indicate knowledge of the subject covered? If the site is research-based, does the author clearly identify the method of research and the data gathered? Authority Because publishing on the Web is so easy, determining the author's expertise relevant to the topic covered is essential. Ask yourself the following questions to determine the author's credibility. Do you recognize the author's name? If you don't recognize the name, what type of information is given about the author? Position? Organizational affiliation? E-mail address? Biographical information? Was the site referenced in a document or web site that you trust? Remember: If the author's name is not evident -- BEWARE! If the author's name is present, sometimes it is difficult to determine the author's credibility. Determine the level of importance the author's expertise is to the overall site. Objectivity Any published source, print or non-print, is rarely 100% objective. The Internet has become a highly utilized arena for all types of publishing. Determining the author's point of view or bias is very important when evaluating a web site. What is the purpose of the web site: Is it advertisement for a product or service? Is it for political purposes? Is it trying to sway public opinion on a social issue? Do you trust the author or organization providing the information? Currency Being aware of the currency of the information given on a web site is pertinent to the overall evaluation of a site. The currency of the information presented is crucial if the top covered updates rapidly, such medical or travel information. However, keep in mind that not all types of information need to be dated within the last 6-12 months. Is a date clearly displayed? Can you determine what the date refers to? When the page was first written? When the page was first posted on the Internet? When the page was last revised or updated? The copyright date? Find out more about copyright issues. Are the resources used and information provided by the author current? Does the page content demand routine or continual updating or revision? Do the links on the page point to the correct Internet site addresses? Coverage The last criteria included in this tutorial is coverage. This can be difficult to determine because the nature of a site's coverage may be different than a print resource. However, you should examine these points. Are the topics covered on the site explored in depth? Are the links in the site comprehensive or used as examples? In the site, are the links provided relevant and appropriate?

15

How useful is the information provided for the topic area?

15

Is Wikipedia Reliable? By Dan Woods and Peter Thoeny from Wikis For Dummies (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/is-wikipedia-reliable.html)

The creators of Wikipedia are the first to admit that not every entry is accurate and that it might not be the best source of material for research papers. Here are some points to consider: Look for a slant. Some articles are fair and balanced, but others look more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. If an article has only one source, beware. Consider the source. Even if an article cites external sources, check out those sources to see whether they are being cited fairly and accurately and do, in fact, reinforce the article's points. Look who's talking. If you research the contributors themselves and find that they are experts in their fields, you can be more confident in the entry. Start here, but keep going. Wikipedia should be a starting point for research but not your primary source for research material.

When visiting controversial entries, look out for edit wars. Edit wars occur when two contributors (or groups of contributors) repeatedly edit one another's work based on a particular bias. In early 2004, Wikipedia's founders organized an Arbitration Committee to settle such disputes.

Wikipedia does have some weaknesses that more traditional encyclopedias do not. For example There is no guarantee that important subjects are included or given the treatment that they deserve. Entries can be incomplete or in the middle of being updated at any given time. The writers of entries often fail to cite their original sources, thus making it hard to determine the credibility of the material.

These issues should not deter you from using Wikipedia. Just weigh the limitations of Wikipedia and, for that matter, reference works in general.

I-Search policy for using Wikipedia You are allowed to use information from Wikipedia, but consider finding even stronger sources. If you do use Wikipedia for your I-Search, remember: You must appropriately cite any information you take from Wikipedia, whether quoted or paraphrased. Wikipedia will not count toward your minimum of three sources

16

September 4th, 2006 The Lunchroom Rebellion

by Burkhard Bilger
The lunch ladies of my elementary-school memories in Oklahoma are a stout, sweet-tempered breed. They wear cats-eye glasses and have beauty-shop perms, with hairnets drawn taut across their foreheads. They have gray uniforms and dishwater complexions, and stand in line dolloping out grayish foodboiled okra, spinach with vinegar, corn bread and black-eyed peassmiling wearily, as if they knew that they were slowly killing us. Im not sure what they would think of Ann Cooper, the new executive chef of the Berkeley public schools, in California. I suspect that she would make them nervous. Cooper, who calls herself the Renegade Lunch Lady, was hired last fall to revamp the citys dismal schoollunch program. She is small and tightly wound, with shoulders bunched from lifting weights. She has bright, defiant eyes, unruly brown hair, and a raspy alto that tends to break when she gets excited. In the kitchen, she moves with quick, stiff-legged strides, nipping at heels, barking out instructions, and sending her large, slowmoving colleagues into bewildered stampedes. She is, in short, a typical chef, landed in a world where real cooking is almost unknown. Cooper is quick to admit that shes making the worst food of her life. In her twenties, she attended the Culinary Institute of America and cooked on cruise ships. In her thirties, she owned her own restaurant, in Telluride, and was named an up-and-coming chef by Gourmet. In her forties, she transformed the Putney Inn, in Vermont, into a bastion of New American cuisine. Now, at fifty-two, Cooper has ended up where most chefs wouldnt deign to begin: in an under-staffed, under-equipped cafeteria, trying to wean four thousand children from deepfried chicken nuggets. I spent my whole career making fancy food for rich people, she says. Ive cooked for Hillary Clinton and Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Buffet and the Grateful Dead. I dont want to do that anymore. Coopers first experience with cafeteria cooking was of a more utopian sort. In 1999, her work at the Putney Inn caught the attention of Courtney Sale Ross, the wealthy widow of a former chairman of Time Warner. Ross had founded a school for fifth to twelfth graders in East Hampton, New York. It had a progressive, ecologically minded curriculum, and she wanted its food to be equally enlightened. At first, I said, No way! Im a chef, not a lunch lady! Cooper recalls. But when Ross showed her the schools new, ten-million-dollar Wellness Center, where students could do yoga or dine overlooking a forest of silvery pines, Cooper agreed. Over the next few years, she hired a local poet-farmer to grow organic vegetables and sent students to help with the harvest. She lured sous-chefs from French and Asian restaurants in New York and wrote recipes linked to the curriculuma feast of fifteenth-century dishes, for instance, for a course on the Renaissance. She made celery-root soup and green gazpacho, Caprese salad and fennel stew, and the children cleaned their plates, after a little cajoling. People used to joke that the Ross School had the best restaurant in the Hamptons. Martha Stewart filmed a segment of her television show there, and a magazine for Lexus owners ran a story on it entitled Haute Cafeteria. But although Cooper had hoped that other cafeterias would adopt some of her methods, few could afford to do so. Elsewhere in America, one in five schools was selling fast food and less than half had working kitchens. The country was in the midst of an epidemic of childhood obesity, the Surgeon General had declared, yet eighty per cent of school lunches contained more fat than federal guidelines allowed. I got tired of everyone telling me that what I was doing could only be done at the Ross School, Cooper says. Berkeley is her first attempt at cooking for the massesat making private-school lunches on a public-school budgetbut she is hardly alone anymore. America is suddenly full of people who want to save school lunch:

17

celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver, who exposed the sorry state of British cafeterias two years ago and has threatened to do the same in New York; guerrilla documentarians like Morgan Spurlock, who championed healthful lunches in Super Size Me; and a swelling horde of angry parents, crusading cafeteria directors, and politicians with bitter lunchroom memories of their own. Last year, more than two hundred bills in forty states sought to ban sodas and junk food from schools, and in May the major beverage companies voluntarily agreed to remove non-diet drinks by the fall of 2009. Bill Clinton, whose foundation helped broker the deal, called it courageous. Still, expelling junk food wont do much to improve school cafeterias. In East Hampton, Cooper had twentyseven employees for five hundred diners; in Berkeley, she has fifty-three for four thousand. In East Hampton, Cooper spent about twelve dollars per day, per child on breakfast and lunch. In Berkeley, she spends three and a half dollars for the same two meals. Can a decent lunch be made for so little? And, if so, will anyone eat it? The Central Kitchen of the Berkeley Unified School District lies on a quiet side street in northwest Berkeley not far from the citys foothills. It was built in the nineteen-fifties, as part of Jefferson Elementary School, and has survived periodic upheavals from desegregation, bilingual education, No Child Left Behind, and the Loma Prieta earthquake. The kitchen occupies a dingy, high-ceilinged room. It smells of stale bread and disinfectant, and is populated by hulking industrial machines: a steam kettle, a sauting vat, a pair of convection ovens, and a Hobart mixer with a vaguely menacing air, like the hooded mother beast in Aliens. There is no blender, no food processor, no stovetop or grill, yet the kitchen produces food for thirteen of the citys sixteen schools, including all eleven of its elementary schools. (The other schools have their own kitchens, which Cooper also oversees.) On a Tuesday morning in May, the menu called for meat loaffour thousand servings of it, with mashed potatoes and oven-roasted squash. In the kitchens walk-in refrigerator, thirty cylinders of government-supplied ground beef, each two feet long, five inches in diameter, and ten pounds in weight, awaited Coopers attention. She heaved two of them onto her shoulders and dropped them on a butcher-block counter. Now you can see why I lift weights, she said, then took a swig from a protein shake. Shed had braces put on her teeth in January to fend off gum disease, and this was the only breakfast that wouldnt stick to them. Its a chefs worst nightmare, she said. Cooper had been up since three-thirty, and cooking since five. She lives alone in a rented house in Moss Beach, an hours drive to the south, and commutes to Berkeley every day before dawn. Her crew is usually there when she arrives. The assistant chef, Alan Lyman, an amiable Englishman with the shape and blush of a Bartlett pear, was making a tub of coleslaw. He had spent ten years cooking in British hospitals and twelve in the Berkeley schools, but he was still getting used to Coopers pace. Across from him, a team of eight black and Hispanic workers was scooping chicken and noodles into take-out trays. The group was led by Cecelia Adams, the kitchen manager, a middle-aged black woman with a deep, easy voice and an unflappable manner. Because the other schools lacked proper kitchens, the food had to be prepared well in advance. The chicken had been made on Monday for Wednesdays lunch; the meat loaf would be served on Thursday; and a truck outside was unloading Fridays lunchtamales and enchiladas made by a local company. Cooper had met the owners at a stand at a farmers market. Do you think you could make four thousand of these a week? shed asked. To make the meat loaf, Cooper dumped the tubes of beef into the Hobarts bowl, then added ingredients one by one. The full recipe called for three hundred pounds of meat, seven and a half pounds of bread crumbs, three gallons of milk, ten pounds each of beaten eggs and Parmesan cheese, twenty pounds each of diced onions and shredded carrots, and nearly four pounds of garlic and spices. Cooper worked in batches, calculating the proportions as she went. She has always had a good head for numbers: growing up in Hingham, Massachusetts, she was kicked out of high school twice for smoking pot, but she passed her equivalency tests in a day when she needed them for culinary school. When she had finished adding ingredients, she set the dough hook spinning. They never would have served meat loaf here before, she said. Why not? I asked. Because its food.

24

She looked around for Adams, who was shuttling a row of take-out trays through a shrink-wrapping machine. Cecelia! Get me one of those things you used to serve! Adams gave her a long, heavy-lidded look. Like most of the staff, she had little formal training as a cook, but shed worked in the schools for seventeen years and was getting tired of being reminded of her deadly, grease-dispensing history. She trudged off to the freezer and back, then thumped a rectangular object on the counter. Cooper pounced on it. El Extremo Burrito! she shouted. She flipped it over and pointed to the ingredients list, a block of small-faced type six inches wide and an inch deep. Theyd go into the oven just like that, she said. They didnt even get opened until the kids ate them. When Cooper took charge of the Central Kitchen last fall, she began by banning heat-and- serve dishes. She then made a list of undesirable ingredientstrans-fats, preservatives, and foods with too much salt, refined flour, sugar, or high-fructose corn syrupand began looking for substitutes. White bread gave way to whole wheat, canned fruits and vegetables to fresh, and generic hot dogs and hamburgers to ones made from grass-fed beef. Those changes anyone can do, she said. I banned chocolate milk. Easy. I only accepted hormone-free milk. I banned vending machines. I banned fried foods. That is not brain surgery. The hard part is to get back to scratch cooking, and getting around the commodity program. Every year, the federal government buys nearly a billion dollars worth of raw and processed foods and sends them to schools for free. Many schools then have some of the food sent to plants to be turned into ready-made dishes. The commodity program provides about twenty per cent of the food in cafeterias. Last year, schools got about seven hundred million dollars worth of meat and dairy products, and less than two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of vegetables. Cooper blames this imbalance on the Department of Agriculture, which uses the program to buy up farm surpluses and stabilize prices. The U.S.D.A. is the marketing arm for agribusiness, she said. Its responsible for the national organic standards, and its responsible for school lunch. How many ways can you say conflict of interest? Yet schools are free to choose their own commodities, and they can fill their quota with vegetables and other nutritious staples. The real problem for Cooper was that the items must be ordered months in advance, so she was still using food chosen by her predecessor, now the foodservice director for a prison system. Look at this printout! Cooper said, flourishing a long list of processed cheese, canned fruits, and condiments, laden with sugar and salt. Cooper couldnt afford to throw out those items, so she tried to incorporate them into more nutritious dishes: beef crumbles went into spaghetti sauce, croutons into turkey stuffing, canned p eas into split-pea soup, and canned apricots into a barbecue sauce. Just that week, shed received twenty-six cases of cranberry sauce and eighteen cases of lo mein noodles. Oh, what are we going to do with it? she said. I dont want to use any more shitty food. The answer was coleslaw. When Lyman had filled a five-gallon tub with shredded cabbage and carrots, raisins, salt, and apple-cider vinegar, Cooper came over with a can of the cranberries. Itll be like a sweet vinaigrette, she said, without much conviction. She measured out a pound of the sauce on a scale, dumped it into the tub, then slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and mixed it with her hands. When she was finished, the coleslaw looked as if someone had bled into it. Ah, thats lovely, Lyman said after hed tasted it. But I do think it needs a little more salt. Feeding four thousand on a public-school budget is at best a loaves-and-fishes affair, and at worst the equivalent of a bad casserolefull of dubious proteins cleverly disguised. The federal government subsidizes meals according to a sliding scale: schools get two dollars and forty cents per lunch served to the poorest students, and as little as twenty-three cents for more affluent students. In Berkeley, the state contributes another fifty cents or so, but it doesnt add up to much. Its impossible, Cooper said. Its egregious. It makes me want to cry. But shes lucky to get any subsidies at all. In 1946, when the National School Lunch Program was first proposed to Congress, the country still had fresh memories of the Depression, when children sometimes fainted from hunger in class. Yet plenty of politicians were leery of paying for their food with federal dollars. It was a highly improbable program, Janet Poppendieck, sociologist at Hunter College who is writing a book on school lunch, told me. Congress was

24

looking at one of the largest deficits in national historytwo hundred and eighty billion, in yesterdays dollarsand it was full of articulate conservatives who wanted to shrink government. No one wanted to take lunches away from needy boys and girls, the Republican whip at the time, Leslie Arends, declared. But, he added, the greatest thing that we can hand down to our children is a solvent government. The bill wa s finally signed by President Truman as a measure of national security. The country didnt need healthier students, it seemed, so much as stronger soldiers: more than a third of the conscripts who failed the Armys physicals had been malnourished at one time. During the next thirty years, the program went from subsidizing seven million meals a day to twenty-seven million, and its annual budget grew to more than three billion dollars. Then, in 1981, Ronald Reagan appointed David Stockman as his budget director. Stockman had a simple plan for cutting subsidies: he redefined lunch. A nutritious meal would now have to provide only an ounce and a half of protein instead of two, six ounces of milk instead of eight, and half a cup of vegetables instead of three-quartersa quarter cup of which could be a condiment. To show how this would look on a plate, Patrick Leahy served his colleagues in the Senate a mock school lunch. It consisted of a silver-dollar- size burger on half a bun, a box of milk, a squirt of ketchup, and six grapes. The Reagan Administration withdrew the new guidelines after thousands of letters of protest were sent to the Department of Agriculture. But funding for child nutrition still fell by nearly a billion and a half dollars. (The Carter Administration had previously cut it by four hundred million.) Grants for kitchen equipment were eliminated, forcing districts like Berkeley to move their cooks into centralized facilities, and most schools couldnt afford to cover their cafeterias losses. They needed them to turn a profit. The gospel was preached that cafeterias should be operated like a business, and students as customers, Poppendieck says. And these customers wanted sodas and snacks. In the late nineteen-eighties, when my former high school started offering Coca-Cola and Mazzios pizza alongside regular lunches, I was more jealous than appalled. Fast food had yet to be demonized, fat kids were still just fatnot the tragic victims of an obesity epidemicand name-brand pizza sounded a lot better than the cartilaginous stews wed been served. Even in pure business terms, though, the new foods were often a failure. The more snacks and sodas students bought from vending machines or fast-food lines, the less they spent on regular lunches. Two years ago, when Texas banished junk food from its elementary schools and tightened nutrition requirements for all grades, cafeteria sales increased so much that the state received an extra fifty million dollars in federal subsidiesmore than compensating for the loss in vending-machine revenue. Berkeley first tried to reform its cafeterias in 1999, calling for salad bars in every school and organic vegetables for all. Like many of the citys social campaigns, the effort was both pioneering and imprac tical. It drew mocking news coverage nationwidethe Washington Post accused locals of liking to brag about how progressive they areand the salads disappeared as soon as the grants that paid for them ran out. When Cooper was hired, last fall, after working with the cafeterias for a year as a consultant, her plan was to rebuild the system from the inside out. She wanted not only to improve the food but also to create a step-by-step manual for lunchroom reform nationwidecomplete with recipes, menu cycles, and staffing and ordering guides. But she answers to three masters in Berkeley: the school district is her official employer; the U.S.D.A. subsidizes her meals; and the Chez Panisse Foundation pays her salary (ninety-five thousand dollars, plus benefits, a year). The first needs her to stay within budget; the second insists that she conform to its dietary standards; the third wants her to hurry up and start a revolution. She may yet fail on every front. Weve got union issues. Weve got kitchens that dont cook. Weve got the same shit everybody else has, she says. This is the reality of school food. Tuesday is pizza day at the Malcolm X elementary school. When the second graders arrive for lunch, they bounce up and down and do little dances in line, chanting, Oh, pizza! Oh, pizza! Oh, pizza! Oh, pizza! The school has four hundred students, from kindergarten through the fifth grade. About a fourth of the students are white, a fourth are Asian and Hispanic, and close to half are black, and for many lunch is the best meal of the

24

day. Berkeleys wealth, like its houses, is distributed on a steeply inclined plane, with the poor clustered below and the rich perched high in the hills. People at the two extremes have a twenty-year difference in life expectancy, a study in 2000 found. About forty per cent of the citys students are eligible for subsidized meals. At Malcolm X, the children wear bar-coded payment cards around their necks, so that no one can tell who pays full price. They get a slice of pizza, some grapes or an orange, and the pick of a salad bar that Cooper recently installed, then hold their cards up to the scanner. Cooper doesnt have a problem with pizza. When its made right, it contains vegetables, protein, fibre, and calciuma full meal. A slice of pizza isnt bad for you, she says. A diet of pizza is bad for you. When she first arrived, the cafeterias pizza came in bags, like its burritos. The Central Kitchen had neither the staff nor the equipment to make it, so Cooper hired Karen Trilevsky, an old friend who owns FullBloom Baking Company, in nearby Menlo Park. Trilevsky put her staff to work in her test kitchen for the next three months, then called Cooper in for a tasting. The FullBloom pizza had a thick focaccia crust made with spelt and whole-wheat flour. It had homemade tomato sauce, skim-milk mozzarella, and a variety of sophisticated vegetarian toppings: zucchini, corn, and fresh tomato; blue cheese, walnut, and roasted onion. It was fabulous, Cooper recalls. It was fresh. It was delicious. The kids couldnt stand it. The toppings were weird, they said, the crust too bready, the cheese too brown and not cheesy enough. At Malcolm X and the other ten elementary schools, the trash cans overflowed with rejected slices. It was across the board, Cooper says. The cooks at FullBloom tried chopping the vegetables into tiny pieces; the complaints continued. They tried hiding the vegetables beneath the cheese; the children rooted them out. Finally, in January, the cafeteria manager from Malcolm X came to Coopers office with a tersely worded petition (We do not like the veggie pizzas, nor do we like the pork roast with applesauce. . . .) and a large sheet of butcher paper signed by more than two hundred students. Cooper hung it beside her desk, beneath a line of Tibetan prayer flags. In the bottom left corner, a girl named Shalika had drawn a frowny face. Next to that, her classmate Tajahniqua had written, Veteteriyin pizza. I hate that food. Two weeks later, Cooper put on her chefs whites and went to face her critics. They marched into the Malcolm X auditorium in three shifts, during recess, and listened politely to her explanations. Then they raised their hands and began the inquisition. What happened to the double hamburgers? Why havent we had orange chicken lately? Where are our nachos? Cooper told them that there was hardly any chicken in the orange chicken and no real cheese in the nacho sauce, but they didnt care. They were really pissed off, she says. I took away all the crap they liked. Children can learn to eat almost anything, given time. In Mexico, they consume fiery chilies; in Japan, whale meat; in Sweden, pickled herring. But a palate, once formed, isnt easily expanded. At Penn State, the psychologist Leann Birch has tracked the eating habits of a hundred and sixty girls between the ages of five and fifteen, as well as various tortured attempts to improve their diets. The most common ploys tend to backfire: forbidding sweets instills a craving for them, and insisting on vegetables can instill an aversion. Labeling foods as healthy makes them taste worse to children, and offering sweets as rewards for eating vegetables makes the latter seem even less appetizing. (Birch also tried offering vegetables as rewards for eating sweets, but the children just laughed at her.) Peer pressure sometimes helps. When Birch had kids who hated peas eat at tables surrounded by kids who loved peas, the pea-haters switched sides within a week. But cafeterias tend to breed complainers. At the Ross School, Cooper served three or four entrees a day, two desserts, and two kinds of pizza baked in a brick oven. Yet a month after she arrived she was cornered by a gang of sulky fifth graders. They were going on hunger strike, they told her, until they got their grilled-cheese sandwiches back. The best way to broaden a childs palate is to start early. When mothers eat garlic or carrots while pregnant, recent studies have shown, their newborns have a taste for those flavors as well, and breast-fed babies tend to be less picky about solid food than bottle-fed babies. By the age of four or five, almost all children become neophobic: they develop an aversion to new foods, and to vegetables in particularan ancestral memory, perhaps, of too many poisonous plants eaten by children in the past. To overcome this instinct, preschools in Minneapolis, New York, and other cities have lately experimented with hand puppets, gardening and cooking

24

programs, and color-coded vegetable charts. But theres no real substitute for patience; the average five-year-old has to taste a new food between five and ten times, Birch has found, before hell accept it. At the Ross School, Cooper could afford to wait: within a year, her students were happily eating jicama. In Berkeley, she had no food to waste. And so, in the month after the meeting at Malcolm X, the veggie pizza was slowly stripped bare. They would call every week and say, Take off the zucchini. Take off the corn. Take off the fresh tomatoes, a manager at FullBloom told me. Within three weeks, all the vegetables were gone. The crust was still rich in protein and fibre, and the cooks pureed some squash, carrots, and other vegetables into the sauce, where even the students X-ray eyes couldnt detect them. But by and large the pizza began to look like pizza again. The second graders at Malcolm X had made their peace with it. Across town, though, the fourth graders at John Muir were unconvinced. Not having had a meeting with Cooper, they blamed the food on their new principal, Mr. John, whom they suspected of being a vegetarian. Its all vegetable, a small, apple-cheeked girl named Melika told me. She hunched her shoulders and shook her ropy braids: Ooooooooo! That principal get on my nerves! Her tall, skinny friend Naeemah was of two minds. The food was better for you, she said, now that it wasnt extruded by this big machine thing anymore. But the pizza was still overcooked, and she missed all the meat from last year. She picked at her pink coleslaw. Im moving to Texas, she said. The low point of Coopers lunchroom crusade came in February. She had always known that her food costs would go up, but she had hoped that her revenues would rise as well. Fewer than half of the districts ten thousand students ate school lunches: most of the high-schoolers went off campus, to places like Top Dog and Extreme Pizza, and many of the middle-and grade-schoolers brought their lunch. If Cooper could lure a few hundred of them back to the cafeteria, she would be able to pay for a lot of organic vegetables. By late winter, however, she was tens of thousands of dollars over budget, and cafeteria attendance had yet to go up. Then came the inspectors. The Department of Agriculture has devised a welter of well-meaning regulations over the years to insure that schools serve healthful lunches. Its original scheme, which is still used by most schools, is known as foodbased menu planning. It requires that elementary-school lunches contain at least six hundred and sixty-four calories and portions of meat, grains, milk, and fruit or vegetables. Less than thirty per cent of the calories can come from fat, but carbohydrates are unrestricted. This has led to some predictable perversities. Corn and French fries are by far the most popular vegetables in schools, followed by other potato dishes. To keep fat down, schools often ban whole milk and deep-fried foods, only to find that theyre not serving enough calories. Its really an Alice in Wonderland situation, the sociologist Janet Poppendieck told me. They can increase the size of entres, but its hard to do that without increasing the fat. They would like to increase the vegetables, but that they cant afford. So they end up adding dessert. Or they sweeten the milk with strawberry or chocolate. Theyve taken the fat out of it, then put the calories back in with sugar. In the mid-nineties, the U.S.D.A., led by a former health activist named Ellen Haas, introduced a more flexible alternative called nutrient-based menu planning. Cafeterias could make almost anything they liked, as long as a weeks worth of meals contained all the necessary nutrients. If Mondays lunch was heavy on beef, Tuesdays could be a stir-fry. The only drawback was that every recipe had to be entered into a database so that its ingredients could be broken down into vitamins, minerals, protein, and so on. The most common ingredients and processed foods were preloaded in the software, but Cooper was cooking from scratch and reworking recipes continually. She didnt have time to analyze her dishes before serving them. So she didnt bother. She hired a consultant to enter the recipes as she perfected them, but otherwise kept cooking. I never met a rule I didnt want to break, she says. Especially stupid rules. The three inspectors who came to Coopers office in February werent pleased with this attitude. They asked to see her recipes and her analyses. She did not have them. They asked how she knew that the children were getting enough calories. She said, Have you looked at the obesity rate? They told her that she was not in

24

compliance and was in danger of losing her federal subsidies. I felt like a comet slamming into the side of a mountain, she told me. Coopers friend Kate Adamick, a corporate lawyer turned cafeteria consultant, sat in on one of the meetings. I listened for a while, as they told Ann that she was doing everything wrong, that they were going to have to shut her down, and they hadnt even tasted the food, Adamick told me. So I stepped in and said, Would you rather Ann had spent a year getting the paperwork in place and then improved the food? And they said, Yes. I said, But the food they were serving was terrible! And one of the women said, That is not t rue. They were using commodity foods. As it happened, Adamick had recently attended a trade show in Los Angeles and had home pictures of the newest products being made for schools out of U.S.D.A. commodities. She called them up on the screen of her laptop one by one: corn dogs, pizza strips, and deep-fried cherry pies; grilled-cheese sandwiches, Texas cheese toast, and breaded chicken treats molded into hearts and moons and stars. Look! Fried things in shapes! Cooper joked, when she showed me the slides later. But, at the time, she was on the verge of losing her job. Ann is basically fearless, Adamick says. Ive never seen her intimidated by anything, ever. But these women made her seriously nervous. She would say, We have a meeting with the mean people and theyre going to put me in jail. As usual, Coopers cooking proved to be her most convincing defense. When the inspectors returned in March to examine the cafeterias, their attitude softened noticeably. Their report cited dozens of administrative and food-service infractions[the children] received 1/2 kiwi instead of the specified 1 each but noted that the food was very high quality and was visually pleasing as well as tasty. Cooper was given until November to fix the problems. They could haw made my life miserable, she told me. They could have given me forty-five days to come into one-hundred-per-cent compliance, and in the end they didnt. She grinned. I'm proud to say we copted the U.S.D.A. By this spring, Coopers outlook had improved markedly. Her staff was getting used to cooking fresh food again, the consultant was filling the database with recipes, and, in March, cafeteria attendance had finally begun to climb. At this pace, Coopers losses would level off at around seventy thousand dollarsan acceptable amount, given all that shed accomplished. And yet when she picked me up for dinner one evening in her Toyota Prius she looked haggard. Shed been to see her orthodontist for another radical tightening session, she told me. It hurt so much I wanted to throw up. But her uneasiness had more to do with meat loaf. Earlier that day, Cooper had gone to see Alice Waters, the chef and owner of Chez Panisse, whose foundation paid her salary. Waters was no fan of meat loaf. I was really excited, Cooper said. I told her that we were going to serve it with fresh vegetables and mashed potatoes. And she looked at me and said, Meat loaf! The kids cant possibly like meat loaf! Cooper took a long sip from her protein shake. I almost got into it with her, she said. I mean, what is a French country pte? Its basically meat loaf, only its steamed, right? But we cant possibly eat meat loaf. Cooper and Waters had seemed like a perfect match. They met in the mid-nineties, when Cooper was writing an oral history of female chefs and Waters was breaking ground for the Edible Schoolyarda vegetable garden on the site of an asphalt playground in Berkeley. Waterss vision, which has given rise to school gardens across the country, was that students would spend an hour or two working the soil every week, then cook and eat what they grewlearning history, ecology, and healthful eating in the process. Coopers cooking was supposed to be an extension of this philosophy. The whole experience of lunch needs to be completely transformed, Waters told me. It needs to be a place where you can experience the ritual of the table, a way to teach kids about stewardship of the land, about nourishing yourself and communicating with people, about this rich subject of ecogastronomy. A year later, here they were, serving meat loaf. Cooper had been as idealistic as Waters once, but the longer she struggled to feed the masses the more she appreciated mass production: centralized kitchens, mainstream

24

recipes, economies of scale. FullBloom, for example, had grown from a small bakery in the back of an espresso shop in San Franciscothe kind of soulful local enterprise that Waters adoredinto a factory that made two hundred thousand pastries a day. That size allowed the bakery to spend months formulating pizzas for Cooper, knowing that they might recoup the investment later by baking for other local schools. Alice doesnt want to work with anyone as large as FullBloom, Cooper said. And Im not sure I can work with anyone smaller. If I asked them to do the kind of R. and D. FullBloom did, theyd just say, Get the fuck out of here. Waters admitted that Cooper had made great progressWere not sort of in the nacho place anymorebut she felt that they still had a long way to go. Why couldnt they serve vegetable curry, she wondered, or saut dishes to order? Cooper, meanwhile, had decades-old refrigerated trucks that kept breaking down. Her produce sometimes looked as if it came from a compost heap. Her labor costs were fifty-seven per cent of her budget (in most restaurants, its less than forty), yet she couldnt cut union wages. Alice is a really wonderful visionary, she said. But this work is all about baby steps, and she cant see baby steps. In her perfect world, shed like to have the kids served bountiful baskets of fresh-picked berries. And you know what? It aint happening. When I was in the seventh grade, my father took a two-year sabbatical in southern France and put us all in public schools. My lyce was a glum, disagreeable place. The hours were long, the students anarchic, the teachers authoritarian, but the cafeteria nearly made up for it. We sat at round tables in groups of eight and were served three courses of some of the strangest food Id ever seensauted squid, boudin noir, rabbit with mustard sauce. There were no choices to make, no variable subsidies to claim, no bagged lunches or vending machines. Everyone ate the same food, and the food, I discovered, was wonderful. Thinking back on those meals when I was in Berkeley, I could understand Waterss frustration. What Im imagining is happening all over the world, she told me. Its not like were inventing something that has never been done before. For Cooper, too, the French system seemed an ideal model, if only she could afford it. A month before my visit, she had toured some cafeterias in the town of Challans, in the west of France. The lunches there were made in a central kitchen then trucked in bulk to the satellite schools, to be served family style, just as I remembered. At one meal, the first course was raw beets in a vinaigrette, Cooper recalled. The second was braised salmon with lentils and leeks, and the third was a cheese course. That was school lunch. The cost of food and labor came to about eight dollars a mealmore than three times as much as the average American lunchof which every child paid about two dollars. (In Rome, which recently adopted a similar system on a much larger scale, the meals cost only about five dollars, and seventy per cent of the ingredients are organic.) I asked Cooper, one morning, as we were driving to the Central Kitchen, how long it would take American schools to switch to the French or Italian system, if they had the money. Two years, she said. There are three big issues: investing in kitchens, food procurement, and staff training. But Ive made all these changes in six months without any money. You cant tell me its going to take anyone else more than two years. This sounde d optimistic at best. The school-lunch program wont be reauthorized until 2009, and it already costs the country seven billion dollars a year. To double the subsidies would take a profile in courage, one anti -hunger lobbyist to me. Then again, the program has always been a creature of implausible politics. Come on! Cooper said. The war costs more than a billion dollars a week! Why dont we say well double what we spend on school lunch? Where are our priorities? Maybe I was high the day they explained that in school. It was well before dawn, and Cooper had to focus on the long, looping coastal road from Moss Beach. I could tell, though, that she was still running the numbers in her head. Politics, more than cooking, consumed her these days. If I was getting up every morning at three-thirty just to make tuna-fish sandwiches, Id jump off the Bay Bridge, she said. She owns two houses on the East Coast, one of them with a former partner, but she said that she had no intention of moving back anytime soon. She had agreed to work in Berkeley for three years and was already looking further aheadto reforming the cafeterias of Portland, Oregon, perhaps, or to some other, more subversive scheme. I want to sue the U.S.D.A.! Id heard her say, her eyes gleaming. I want Oprah to pick this up! I want school lunch to be an election issue in 2008! But first she had a few thousand mouths to feed.

24

2013 MLA CITATION GUIDE

This short guide to MLA citation is adapted from the Purdue Online Writing Lab and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 7th Edition. For more information, or to cite sources that do not appear on this handout, go to the web address below and use the orange menu on the left side of the page to locate the desired citation information:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
PARENTHETICAL REFERENCES IN THE TEXT
Parenthetical citation tells a reader what you borrowed from a source and exactly where in that source you found the information. Each parenthetical citation should include the minimal amount of information required to lead a reader to the full citation. Often this is the author or interviewees last name, and it is always the first word or phrase in the lefthand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited list. For print sources, include the authors last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase was taken. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example: Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

These examples tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth; readers can find complete information about this source on the Works Cited list. For sources that do not list page numbers, such as most web sources, simply include the authors last name in the parentheses.

THE WORKS CITED LIST

Your Works Cited list must be labeled Works Cited and include full, accurate citations for every source you used, even if these sources are not directly quoted or paraphrased in your paper. Always put your Works Cited list in alphabetical order, and note how the second and subsequent lines of each citation are indented. Below is a list of templates and examples for commonly cited print sources: Book with One Author Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication. Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print. A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection Lastname, Firstname. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication. Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34. Print. Article in a Magazine or Newspaper Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication. Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71. Print. Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007: LZ01. Print.

25

Interview (note: email interviews should use the internet format further down the page) Interviewees Lastname, Firstname. Method of Interview. Day Month. Year. Chen, Lisa. Telephone Interview. 24 Oct. 2002. Internet Sources First, look for the following citation information, knowing that not every online publication will provide it: Author and/or editors name(s) Article name in quotation marks Title of the Website, project, book, or sponsoring organization (for example, Cooks.com) Any version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or issue numbers Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date Page numbers if available (they rarely are) Medium of publications (Web as opposed to Print) Date you accessed the material If you cant find some of this information, cite what is available in the above order, and separate all pieces of information using periods, using n.p. if no publisher name is available and n.d. if no publishing date is given. Most internet citations, including the specific examples below, use some version of this template: Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Article Title. Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution/ organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Medium of publication. Date of access. Below are examples of commonly cited internet sources. An Entire Web Site The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 May 2008. A Page on a Web Site "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow.com. eHow, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2009. An Article in a Web Magazine Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. A List Apart Mag., 16 Aug. 2002. Web. 4 May 2009. E-mail (including E-mail Interviews) Kunka, Andrew. "Re: Modernist Literature." Message to the author. 15 Nov. 2000. E-mail. Neyhart, David. "Re: Online Tutoring." Message to Joe Barbato. 1 Dec. 2000. E-mail.

DONT DESPAIR! This seems complicated, but heres an example of a COMPLETE, PERFECT ISEARCH WORKS CITED LIST by Elana Movshovich. So simple!
Works Cited Auerbach, Marina. Telephone Interview. 20 May 2010. Diggs, Barbara. "What Does the Frontal Lobe Do?" EHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. Web. 23 May 2010. Goleman, Daniel. "Do Dreams Really Contain Important Secret Meaning?" The New York Times 10 July 1984: 1-4. Print.

26

Search Section Excerpts Both of these excerpts incorporate information from outside sources. Evaluate these two excerpts based on how they make use of the information as the authors attempt to answer their I-Search questions.
from Whats Your I.Q.? by Linda Pak (I-Search Q: What do I.Q. Tests really measure, and how valuable are they?) My main question when beginning my research was what do IQ tests really measure. Unfortunately, all of the websites pertaining to IQ tests told me intelligence. That was the obvious answer to my question, but I wanted an answer with more depth. When I interviewed Dr. Kaufman, this was the first question I asked him. I remembered that he seemed excited to answer my question, which made me excited, too. IQ tests measure general reasoning ability. They measure your ability to solve problems and find patterns in a wide range of stimuli (Kaufman). What IQ tests want to do is to strip you of your previous knowledge and test you on how you can think on the spot. Dr. Kaufman described it as a sink or swim experience. After Dr. Kaufman told me this, the reason behind the types of questions that appeared on the IQ tests made a lot more sense to me. The questions are not academic questions; they are sort of like puzzles. If IQ tests did measure intelligence and what you learned in school, there would be questions about science, history, and other subjects that are taught in school (Kaufman). At that moment, I finally understood why IQ tests were quite reliable for testing your intelligence level. If you were asked topics that you learned in school, you could just study and memorize a bunch of facts and it wouldnt be intelligence that affects your score. I interpreted the IQ test as more of a puzzle rather than a test. Almost every source for my I-Search told me something about controversy and debate over what intelligence is. Many scientists and psychologists debate over the accuracy that IQ tests have for predicting the success of a child (Kaufman). IQ tests do not test you on your common sense, artistic or musical talent, or your social skills, which in my opinion are the real factors that will dete rmine ones success. I told Dr. Kaufman about my views on IQ tests and their accuracy. He argued that talent is not necessarily intelligence. I realized immediately that he had a very good point. However, according to the American Psychology Association (APA), psychologists are working to create a new form of IQ tests that will test on other categories like creativity. The APA president Robert J. Sternberg has developed a new test the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT). The STAT is a battery of multiple-choice questions that tap into the three independent aspects of intelligence analytical, practical and creative (Benson). Dr. Sternberg isnt the only scientist developing a new form of IQ tests; there are quite a few psychologists that are trying to incorporate not only intelligence into IQ tests. I wondered after reading this how the format of IQ tests would change. But nonetheless, the fact that scientists are trying to add creativity to the test fascinated me, and I was curious about how they would do it.

from Vegetarianism: A healthier planet? (I-Search Q: Is Vegetarianism better for the environment?) According to Happy Cow, a guide to vegetarianism and healthy eating, vegetarianism is bad for the environment. It causes t he destruction of tropical rainforests. According to the site, Every second, one football field of rainforest is destroyed in order to produce 257 hamburgers (Animal Rights and Vegetarianism). David Brubaker, PhD who works at Johns Hopkins University's Center for a Livable Future, has written that "The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs (Brubaker). I found different information from other sources. Sbastien Nol, a nutrition and healthy lifestyle enthusiast, says that a meat-based diet isnt destroying the environment. Whats destroying the environment is industrial farming, especially the farming of wheat, corn and soy. He says that the agricultural industry consumes a great deal of oil for farm machinery and transportation. (Noel) In The Vegetarian Myth, Lierre Keith writes that agriculturethe growing of plants for consumptionis bad because it requires the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems. He writes that Ninety-eight percent of the American prairie is gone, turned into a monocrop of annual grains. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a monocrop does not rotate with other crops. A recent article by Nick Collins in the British newspaper, The Telegraph, mentioned that a climate change economist named Lord Stern of Bradford, claims that a vegetarian diet is good for the planet because Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lo t of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better (qtd. in Collins). The organization called PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of animals) says that producing two pounds of beef causes more greenhouse-gas emissions than driving a car for three hours and uses up more energy than leaving your house lights on for the same period of time (Vegetarianism and the Environment). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization c laimed that animals raised for consumption produce 18% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. In the newspaper The Guardian, George Monbiot writes that livestock grown for consumption produce less than that, only about 10%.

27

Some Successful I-Search Conclusions From Lets Start Campaigning, by Zoe Wu (I-Search Question: How do politicians start a campaign?) I already loved politics before I began this I-Search. But this I-Search has turned my love of politics into more of a sense of admiration. I used to think that politicians run for public offices purely for their personal ambitions to bring themselves wealth and fame. I thought that the only reason public officials actually try to do anything for the people whom they represent was because they wanted to win their next election. After learning about the grueling process of starting a successful campaign, however, I am beginning to feel otherwise. After all, is it really worth it to spend more than eight exhausting months on the campaign trail, listening to criticisms from the opposing campaign each day, just for wealth and fame? Besides, as I have learned from my interview with Dr. Fuchs, many politicians are already wealthy before they start running for an office (which is probably why they are able to start their campaigns in the first place), and they certainly have no reason to go through the tiring process of campaigning just to earn more money that they do not even need. As for fame, just think about how many politicians currently in office you can name. For many people, the answer probably does not exceed 30. Even if you are someone who watches the news, youll probably be lucky to get to 50. Moreover, I have found, after talking about politics with the people around me, that a more than half of the people cannot even identify the politicians who represent them at a local level. In fact, many of these people whom I have talk to do not even know what are the local offices and their tasks. So why then do politicians bother to start a campaign? I guess behind those unpleasant images that people often portray politicians in, these politicians do have at least a bit of goodness and passion as their motivation. Although this was not what I had expected to come out of my I-Search, the results of my search have inevitably make me appreciate the art of campaigning even more and strengthen my commitment to follow future elections. As for pursuing a career in political consulting? Well, it is still on my frequently-changing list of career goals. What I do know is that if I ever want to become a political consultant, then I still have much to learn. The formula for starting a successful campaign, as I have come to realize, is as much as setting up a cohesive campaign team and developing a solid strategy as it is about laying out brilliant policies. People complain all the time that the format of elections is flawed in that the candidate with the best policies does not always win. While it has been historically proven that the candidates who win elections are not always the best leaders, it is still my strong belief, especially after learning the organization required to start a campaign, that the process of campaigning can give voters a good look at candidates leadership that is, if voters are willing to take a good look at the campaigns and carrying out their responsibilities on the Election Day.

From Living to Eat, by Scott Ma (I-Search Question: What makes French food so special?) From this I-Search, I learned not only how different French food was from that of America, but also how one can create such foods. Not only are there differences in style between the two distant regions, but there are also vast differences in culture and etiquette. Referring back to Franck Tessiers proverb: In Europe, we live to eat; In America, you eat to live. I recall thinking of that quote while eating at McDonalds the other day. I was in a hurry to get home and finish the homework I needed to get done (which I am now doing past midnight the day it is due). As I was eating my burger as fast as I could, I thought back on Tessiers words and slowed the speed at which I ate. As I ate, I thought of the flavor and the work put into the meal. It might not have been a top-tier chef who had created the food, but it was food nonetheless. It was food created from the labor of others, and it ought to be appreciated. It was an interesting experience. The food suddenly tasted blander and more artificial. The bread became more plain and untasteful. I was surprised by the sudden change in flavor once I slowed down my speed. And the interesting thing was, it suddenly made sense. Grumbacher, Pinkard, and Tessier had all told me that the quality of the result was directly proportional to the amount of effort and thought put into it. At a fast-food restaurant like McDonalds, someone could hardly expect to find food of a high stature. This I-Search has not only provoked an interest in me of the cuisine of France, but also of food itself. No longer will I view food as something just to be consumed and eaten. For me, like Frenchmen, food is more of a living thing, something that requires love, devotion, and appreciation. And, in my opinion, that one idea is what makes French cuisine so unique.

28

From How Can I Be Multilingual? by Derek Tsui Im not afraid to say that I was a bit clueless at the beginning of my search. I truly believed that I could acquire all the languages of the world in one summer. The truth is far from it. While there are ways to approach this task on a limited time schedule, the key words (just like any other goal) are patience and persistence. Throughout this search, I became open to several new methods of learning that I plan on trying out, and I believe it is something that I can accomplish. Its the little things that I now fit into my day: practicing with digital flashcards on the train ride to school, listening to slow news podcasts, and even conversing with my friends in different languages. Maybe it can be done after all. Through this search, Ive also found that the benefits of being multilingual are clear and ever more important, especially in a global environment that is connecting at a rapid pace, something that the European Commissions paper emphasized. With all of its advantages, its my hope for language to be more prioritized in the U.S., as it is in the rest of the competitive world. Many people need to realize that language is more than a cultural side note, but a connection to the world as well as a great help to mind development. As for my possible future career, I do want to make good use of my skills. Listening to Ms. Selos refreshing experiences of her ability to travel the world, and the various people and organizations that she works with (many of which are very, very high up), I am now much more informed about potential careers. If I choose to, I might be able to pursue my passion in the near future by using the techniques that work for me.

From Decisions, Decisions, by Kelly Chen (I-Search Question: How does the human mind make decisions? And how can I make better ones?) When I began this I-Search, all I knew about decision making was what every other person claims to know. I knew that it was based on prior knowledge, emotions and that was about it. Honestly, I wasnt even sure if I would be able to find out much information at all because it seemed like when humans are the subjects of such questions, nothing can be known for certain since we are all so different. However, through this search driven by my need to answer all the questions I had, I found out so much more about how we make decisions, things I never would have imagined. More importantly, I was able to answer a question that I think most people today want to know: how can I make better decisions? When taking all of the things Ive learned into consideration, there are several things to keep in mind. The brain is always arguing with itself, and we need to know in what contexts the different decision paths are appropriate for. In general, it seems that the logical brain needs to be used when faced with situations that you have never faced before or havent really been used to. On the other hand, once you become accustomed to something and when deciding things purely opinion based, your emotional brain should be used. (After all, you are the one whose happiness depends on these decisions.) The information Ive obtained from this search will be useful to me in my attempts to make better decisions. This I-Search has opened up a new world to me. The world of psychology was always something I enjoyed, learning facts here and there, but this assignment has led me to realize it is something I can consider pursuing in my education and maybe even as a career. In the end, the most important conclusion Ive come to realize is that decisions are important, but we shouldnt kill ourselves over making the wrong ones. They happen every single day and there are going to be times when you just cant know what the right thing to do at the time is. Therefore, you can only do the best you can and keep moving forward because constantly regretting decisions you make is just going to make you miserable.

28